Leaving Piazza Anfiteatro through the archway to Piazza Scalpellini and turning on the right we come back to Via Fillungo. Walking a few meters north-east along the old street, we find on the left Piazza S. Frediano and the church with the same name.

At the beginning the church of S. Frediano was outside the city walls, but after their enlargement in the Middle-Age it was enclosed in the town centre. In the 6th century the bishop Frediano let a church to be built on the site of the current basilica, which is nevertheless oriented towards the opposite direction. The sixth-century church was dedicated by Frediano to S. Vincenzo. The reconstruction of the building (8th century) is due to bishop Giovanni I, who let also a crypt to be built, in which the remains of S. Frediano were placed. The works for church's restoration, dating back to 1112, were supervised by Rotone (the prior of the monastery).
In 1147 the basilica was consecrated by Pope Eugene III, although it wasn't finished yet. According to the plan the church should be divided into three naves and an apse. For town-planning reasons (the new city walls would have blocked the entrance to the church) the east-west orientation of S. Vincenzo's church was inverted, in comparison with the traditional architectonic rule. It is a very important change for that age.

On the façade there is a wonderful thirteenth-century mosaic from the school of Berlinghieri, depicting the Ascension of Christ in a mandorla with the Apostles below. The church took its current appearance after the construction of the two side-chapels (built between the 14th and 16th century).